Ben Chadwick

Curriculum-Engaged School Libraries and Teacher Librarians Value Curriculum-Alignment of Resources

Creator (first)

Ben Chadwick

Description

Australian school libraries have an expressed need to organise resources
according to Australian Curriculum (AC) outcomes.
The Schools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS) at Education Services
Australia creates and distributes MARC records to 93% of Australian school
libraries, but has not traditionally provided curriculum-alignment data.
This paper describes a SCIS survey of 586 Australian school libraries, examining
the factors driving demand for curriculum alignment. Libraries with a teacherlibrarian
and those that were already actively engaged in curriculum resourcing
saw the most value in resource alignment.
Curriculum-engaged libraries were more prominent in secondary schools,
Catholic schools, and large schools with larger libraries and a teacher-librarian.
They were also more prominent in schools where teachers actively engaged with
library staff. Library engagement is discussed as a concept of potential interest
for further research.